At the All Things Open 2017 conference, Michael Clayton and I gave a talk about game jams and open source development tools. Here's an overview of our presentation.

First, there are many reasons developers love creating games. Here are four great ones:

It includes many disciplines, both creative and technical.

It offers a tangible, shareable result.

It is symbiotic to work.

It's fun!

How can you get started in game development? You could simply write a game, but that might be intimidating, so it can be hard to know where to begin. "Game jams" are a great way to get started, let me explain how.